Middleton Golden Cluster Month

Volunteer guides at their training session at Middleton’s Edgar Wood Centre

A group of eager tourist guides are gearing up to show visitors around heritage attractions in Middleton after their annual training session to refresh their skills. Middleton Golden Cluster Month kicks off on Tuesday 3 September and will run on Tuesday and Friday afternoons throughout the month.

Middleton Golden Cluster is the name for a group of four fascinating buildings in Middleton. Half-timbered Ye Olde Boar’s Head pub was built in 1632, and throughout Cluster Month guided tours will take place on Tuesdays and Fridays at 11.30am, with self-guided tour leaflets available during the pub’s normal opening hours. From 1pm to 4pm a mediaeval church, Renaissance Grammar School and an Arts & Crafts church will be open to complete The Cluster Trail.

St Leonard’s Parish Church dates from 1412 and tour guides have a fund of stories from every century, including the Battle of Flodden on September 9th 1513, when archers from Middleton helped to defeat the King of Scotland. Nearby Queen Elizabeth I Free Grammar School was a school from1586 until the 1970s and even saw the invention of bottled beer. A specially-brewed beer from local brewers Wilson Potter celebrates this story.

The last building on the Cluster Trail shows the skills of internationally famed Middleton architect Edgar Wood. His Grade II* Long Street Methodist Church is one of his masterpieces and a rare example of an Arts & Crafts church that also incorporates Art Nouveau and Modernist elements.

Christine Grime, one of the guides said: “This is the third year in which all four buildings have opened on the same days so that people can see them all in one visit. We’re looking forward to telling the story of Middleton’s fascinating history to locals and visitors alike.”

Middleton Golden Cluster Tours